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OUR MARTYR PRESIDENT. 
MKPEDIENOY OF A DANKItUI'T JjAW- 
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MID ?TATIO?f AL DBPEKGE. 61 

fc EOALITY or OOKOORIPTIOK . 63 

LEGALITY UE OOJfOORirTIOK AOAIK. 68 

A - DniEE DULOUIUM. 70 

TnD NEWOPAPEIti 83 

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OUR MARTYR PRESIDENT. 



BY JOHN F. BAKER. 



ABRABAM ZINCOZX IS DEAD! 

The gentlest, noblest, the foremost man of this magnificent epoch, 
is no more. The stalwart oak, around whose trusty arm twined the 
nation's heart and hope, upon whom, for a season, hung the weal or 
woe of Liberty — has fallen ! Fallen, in the noontide of his glory ; 
fallen — not in the shock of battle, amidst the clash of arms ; not by 
disease or accident, but by the hand of a parricidal assassin. 

For this untimely death — strange and unnatural — of our Chief 
Magistrate, every city, and village, and hamlet in the land is draped 
in deepest mourning : — 

"He filled the nation's eye and heart. 
An honored, loved, familiar name — '" 

and thus the 
mournful pageant of to-day. 

Lifting the veil of grief, we recall with happiest recollections the 
valuable services of this just and nol)le man, who, possessing and dis- 
playing uppermost the "greatest" of the three virtues, by his wise 
policy had well nigh ended a gigantic rebellion, which was aimed at 
the life of liberty. He was endowed with that prescience of genius 
which, above all others, enabled him to see the end from the beginning 
— Tie never despaired of the Jlepiihlic .' 

It is a matter of pleasing reflection, rising above and overlooking 
the political corruptions that casually bubble on the view, and startle 



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us with an insight into the web and woof of their malfeasances — that 
we can point to one, can pause and dwell upon one name with a 
grateful satisfaction standing preeminent in his claims upon the pub- 
lic gratitude. 

It is refreshing, as it is reassuring to our confidence, however faint 
and wavering at times in the recurrence of rare instances of human 
virtue. 

To us, the people at large, who have partaken of the benefits of his 
wise, temperate, and in the main, judicious administration, there is 
something that calls forth a deep sense of regret, that we have lost one 
whom we have been accustomed to regard as a faithful guardian and 
friend ; one to whom we had confided the precious custody and dis- 
position of our public trusts, in the hour of supreme peril ; one who 
was found commensurate with, and answered well our high expecta- 
tions ; one who passed through the tremendous ordeal which tries the 
heart, and taxes to the uttermost all claims of good faith, of reliable 
trustworthiness, of integrity, of patriotic devotion ; all claims upon 
the loftiest moralities of our nature. And yet he held out to the last, 
and reappeared to us with a fair disk, like a bright planetary transit 
emerging from out the obscurities and antagonisms which enveloped 
hun, or confronted his public course. There were periods of posing 
thought, of conflicting fears, of mental struggles, of exhaustive, sleep- 
less hours of labor, the labor of mind, the hardest and most trying, 
self-imposing of all. 

We can now recur to his Presidential career, dismissing our need- 
less prejudices, receiving the sterling coin at its tested worth, and 
standing forth untrammelled by party biases, take an appreciative es- 
timate of all that has been so faithfully achieved. 

If he erred, if he made a seeming blunder, it may be the error was 
that of a non-conforming policy with our own, already revealed to a 
good issue, or left to the development of time ; or that were consequent 
upon the magnitude or multifariousness of the machinery which came 
under his magisterial guidance. Conceding to the frailty of human 
foresight, bias of prejudice, or impulse of party proclivities, we have 
much and largely to felicitate us in the results already come to light. 

Out from the valley of darkness and war — "'with malice toward 
none, with charity for all"* — he guided the storm-tossed ship of state ; 
and when he closed his eyes for the last time, the people realized that, 



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through his deeds of wisdom they could see, beyond the mists and 
vapors, a gleam of glory for the nation. 

It is a proud thought that such men may at times appear upon the 
theatre of life, whose practical virtues and noble characteristics illustrate 
their age, as well as bear testimony to the dignity of our nature. 

It is a sublime reward that those who have perished on the bed of 
honor, who have lived and died for their country in this just and 
necessary w^ar, will have their names garlanded on the l)right page of 
history and sung by bards of future generations. "What a Past ! What 
a Future yet to come ! 

We have already, as a nation, yet in theearly off-spring of its youth, 
a rich inheritance of honor in the list of starry lights, which, like a 
beaming constellation, have become enrolled in history. 

We love to revive their names and recall them present to us. We 
recur to, we dwell on these with a justly authorized pride ; and now> 
consecrated by the great tests which we have seen instanced and per- 
fected in him, we have to add one more well deserving to be enshrined 
in that array of bright names — the name of Abraham Lincoln. 

On the morning of the Fifteenth of April, the glorious sun in 
heaven rose to shine but for one short hour upon the dying Martyr ; 
and when the spark of life was extinguished, his soul was lighted up- 
ward, bearing the fetters of four millions of slaves, and the record ot 
a true life to the pearly gates of the Golden City. It has been said 
that each bird of the wood contributes somewhat to the building of 
the eagle's nest ; so our generous hero thought every man according 
to his power, place and capacity, should give something toward the 
preservation and perpetuation of our great eagle's nest — our own 
dear countrj'. He gave his life. 

" And raised on Faith's white wings, unfurled 
In Heaven's pure light, of him we say : 
' He fell upon the self-same day 
A greater died to save the world.' " 

His marked characteristics, his goodness, his wisdom, will be for- 
ever revered and emulated, and the tranquil rhythm of time will bring 
their development. He lived and labored for the grandest cause that 
ever inspired man. He labored for the cause of truth, for the cause 
of justice. He died for the cause of Liberty, for the cause of Human- 
ity, for the cause of God. 
' Had he ambition ? he lived to give assurance to the world his am- 



bition was no more than a holy aspiration to make his country the 
greatest, freest, most powerful and perfect of any government on earth. 
His was the ambition of the truly great — not to achieve present fame, 
but future immortality. 

However party violences have sought or may seek to fix odium 
upon, or assail his fair fame, yet history, faithful in the future, in its 
calm and deliberate estimate of the great and good, shall claim and em- 
balm his name as of her select few, to whom may be assigned the 
crown of her fadeless wreath. He was the prototype, the true repre- 
sentative of the American idea of nobility. We claim him as a part 
and integral portion of our country's greatness ; one who has been 
trusted and found trustworthy. 

We claim him as a great exemplar of his time ; as a monument of 
the purity and constancy of human worth. 

We point to him for the future times, and to other like exceptional 
natures for an assurance of man's claim to the priceless virtues of 
integrity, of truth, of good faith. 

The bright fame of the trusty and deserving servitor, gathering per- 
manence with the tide of time, shall be treasured with imperishable 
honor. 

As the twenty-second day of February shall ever be commemora- 
ted in remembrance of him who achieved the American Republic, so 
in the future shall be hailed and celebrated the birth-day of the Patriot 
tind Statesman who sobveJ, that Republic, — who wrought out the 
problem of Liberty ! then, on one leaf of glory's page shall be in- 
scribed — George Washington ! and — Abraham Lincoln ! on the 
other. His resting-place shall be a precious and consecrated spot ; and 
when the friends of Liberty and Union in our own country, and from 
foreign lands shall seek to do homage to the good and great, they 
will repair to his grave as the second Mount Vernon of America. 

We love to keep in cognizance rare instances of great political or 
publi z virtue. There is a grandeur in its sacrifices which enlists our 
admiration and demands our esteem. 

The sublime fact of one more noble example, at least, is ours ; we 
cherish it among the testimonies of the past. 

Surely, if there ever was an instance on earth, his was the nobility 
portrayed by the beautiful Bard of Avon : — 

H"" I'fe was gentle; and the elements 

So mixed in him, that nature might stand up 

And say to all the world. This teas a man. 



What tliougli with the captious, or from envious malice, it may be 
assumed there was not instanced in him the largest or widest grasp of 
an unusual intellect ; that his were not dazzling or splendid powers 
to startle, astound, or facinate the gaze. 

To him may be assigned a merit which is greater, far nobler than 
mere shining qualities of pen or rare talent — that of a true heart, of 
an unimpeachable purity — a jewel transcending in lustre all tactitious 
or accidental excess in the endowments of mind. With this promi- 
nent and uppermost, as a guiding helm, it needs but little, united 
with an ordinary or common talent, to accomplish much that is per- 
manently great or transcendantly good. 

A mean of greatness does not necessarily imply an element ot ex- 
traordinary gifts. A good heart, with active tendencies, is a sufficient 
guarantee for the attainment of much that is glorious or most worthy 
to be attained. Fidelity— unswerving to the last— is a gem a thou- 
sand times more rich and precious for the purposes of a true life, than 
great powers dominant with injurious propensities for evil, misdirec- 
ted to merely self-aggrandisement, or suffered to fall to unproductive 
waste. It is for this, practically united with the better amenities of our 
nature, that we teach ourselves to love and venerate those in whom 
it is demonstrated to beneficent results. It is this that fastens upon 
our affections and embalms itself in our memory. It is this virtue, 
that demands, and receives a permanence in our gratitude or esteem 

Abraham Lincoln, whom we mourn to-day — for whom the na- 
tion mourns, and the fair Goddess prostrate at his feet, weeps in 
sorroAV for her chosen son — was faithful, kind, and generous, compan- 
ionable and noble. 

Weave the cypress, he is dead ! 

"A Martyr to the cause of man. 
His blood is Freedom's eucharist, 
And in the world's great hero list 
His name shall lead the van 1" 

New York, April 19, 1865. 

*See the Inaugural Address of March 4, 1865. 



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